Early the next morning, as soon as the sky was bright, Mao Dan'er came to ask Shandan to go to school, Shandan got up in his sleep, and they remembered that they had made an appointment to find the quail's nest on the way to school today.

Walking through the dewy meadows, their shoes were soaked. Shandan looked down at the floral cloth shoes that her mother had made for her, and pulled off the blades of grass hanging from the shoes in distress.

This flower cloth shoes are still made of various flower cloth fragments collected by my mother and neighbors into the upper, Shandan is particularly cherished, and today I didn't have time to change into black flannel shoes, and now it is wet, and it is dyed with the green of the grass, and Shandan's small mouth is pouted again.

You must know that the flower cloth is so difficult to get together. The children of every family in the village, regardless of the children and daughters, wear black and gray cloth clothes, only after the New Year, the girls have a flower dress sewn by their mothers, and the remaining corners and corners are sewn up to make pillows, school bags or something, which can make up the face of a pair of shoes, although it is only a centimeter wide strip of cloth to make up, the mother has also saved for several years, and asked for some to make it.

Fortunately, Mao Dan'er had already found the quail's nest and excitedly called Shandan to come and see, and Shandan put down his shoes for the time being.

A nest of freshly hatched red little quails were huddled together and slept soundly, counting five in total! The mother quail must have gone out early to catch insects. No wonder my father often said, "Early finches get worms"!

The little quail is particularly like the newborn prairie mouse, with a red, soft body, black and prominent ugly eyes that have not yet been opened, but there is a thin layer of gray and gray fluff, the little quail has a pair of bare wings that have not yet grown feathers, and the prairie mouse has four thin legs and pointed feet. Just as cute!

Mao Dan'er took a soft and tender artemisia grass, and gently flicked the sleeping little quail, the little quail exploded its nest at once, and all of them scrambled to stretch their necks, opened the mouth of the yellow girl, and called "--- --- , thinking that the quail mother had come back to feed the insects.

Shandan and Mao Dan'er did not touch the little quail with their hands, they knew that when the quail mother smelled a person, she would abandon the little quail and stop feeding them insects, and the little quail would starve to death. They just carefully stroked the little quail with grass and went to school for a while.

From then on, going to see the little quail every morning became the secret and necessity of the little young couple and brothers.

The little quail grew very fast, and on the third day, when Shandan and Mao Dan'er went to see it in the morning, the little quail opened their eyes. Seeing Mao Dan'er and Shandan huddled together in horror, they no longer stretched their necks and opened their mouths to grab food.

After three or four days, a few soft feathers grow on the wings, and then gray feathers begin to grow on the back, tail, belly, and finally gray feathers on the head and under the wings.

Two weeks later, the little quail began to stumble and learn to fly, flying into the sky like a helicopter and then rushing straight down. It was repeated many times before it began to fly forward slowly.

Shandan and Mao Dan'er sat quietly next to each other every morning to watch the little quails grow day by day, they didn't bother the little quails, and let them grow up healthy and fast.

The little quails also seem to have become accustomed to being observed, and practice flying on their own, no longer frightened.

Because Mao Dan'er and Shandan both visited the little quail early in the morning when the quail's parents went to catch insects, the quail's parents never saw Mao Dan'er and Shandan visit their nest, otherwise they would have moved away with their children and daughters.

It didn't take long for the little quails to come out of their nests, leaving behind a round, delicate nest that flew away and never returned.

But Shandan and Mao Dan'er still kept the little quail a topic of conversation as a secret for a long time.

Tie Dan'er has a deep hatred for reading, although he once won first place in the Commune School District Math Competition, and was rewarded with a bottle of ink and a hero brand fountain pen. But his interest in herding sheep and plowing the fields was many times stronger than his studies.

When he was 14 years old, just at the end of the first semester of junior high school, and his father was sick, the burden on the family suddenly became heavy, and Tie Daner was determined not to go to school. Tie Dan'er's mother even used force - an elm stick was put together but it didn't scare Tie Dan'er. Because the grades have always been relatively good, the teacher has also come to invite them, but they have not pulled Tie Daner back to the school classroom.

So, Tie Dan'er's mother wanted to use a way to force Tie Dan'er back to class - let him bear the heavy farm work!

During the day, he kept instructing Tie Dan'er to work, and at night he asked Tie Dan'er to herd night cows. The oxen plough the land in the early morning, and they plough for a day, and they must be fed at night. Although the night cattle in the vast grassland are easy to hold, the drowsiness is difficult to overcome, and if you take a nap, the cattle will run to the seedling field to nibble on the tender wheat seedlings.

One night, Tie Dan'er partnered with a cousin to herd cattle and agreed to take turns napping. When it was Tie Dan'er's turn to take a nap, he tilted his head and was confused for a while. But when Tie Dan'er took a nap, his cousin slept sweetly on the side, but the cow was nowhere to be seen!

At that time, the production had been contracted to the household, and the Tie Dan'er family caught the only breeding cow in the team - the yak cow, which was extremely strong, the yellow fur exuded a charming luster, the head was as big as a drum, and the cry was like a bell, not to mention the majesty.

The other cattle have to pair up to pull the plough to plough the land, and the yak of the Tiedan'er family has the strength, and it is easy for a cow to pull a plow, but the temperament is irritable and difficult to manage.

The yak has never pulled a plow, it is only responsible for the succession of a few squads, and when the cow is in heat, the bull is like a mad worm - more than a dozen wire ropes can not help it! It can easily tear off the wire and run to the cow, and no gelding bull (Qianniu) dares to compete with it.

I really couldn't control it, so Tie Daner had to take the yak gelding, so the yak also became a bullock, and a steel wire was strung on the cow's nose. Although the temper of the cow is a little docile, but the nature of the country is easy to change - every time it is the season of the cow estrus, it still can't hold back a turbulent heart, even if it can't complete the mission of inheritance, it still dominates the cow, and other cows don't want to get closer.

Now Tie Dan'er looked at the empty meadow, and there was not even a shadow of a cow! He hurriedly woke up his cousin beside him, and the two began to look for cattle everywhere in a daze.

First hurriedly ran to the nearby wheat field, the wheat seedlings are the cow's favorite food, the tender green seedlings with a sweet taste, the cow must have smelled the sweetness of the wheat seedlings and went away, the two rushed to see the five cows are eating with relish.

The two children shouted and began to drive the cattle, their immature voices echoing in the empty and dark grassland, panting and anxious.

But the cow was deprived of the opportunity to eat delicious food was so reluctant, drove one head away, the other ran in again, the two children were so anxious that they almost cried, and whipped the cow's buttocks with the leather whip in their hands.

After a great deal of effort, the cattle were finally driven to the meadow, and the wheat seedlings were already ruined, and the sky was already beginning to lighten. Just wait until dawn to see whose wheat field is waiting to be trained.

Tie Dan'er covered his head and drove the cattle without saying a word, he was full of resentment towards his cousin, he was looking at the cattle in the first half of the night, and his cousin had already slept, and it was time for him to sleep in the second half of the night to watch the cow, and he didn't want his cousin to sleep again, and the cow had to be compensated for eating the green seedlings.

At home, his father had tuberculosis and could not work, and only his mother supported the family with three children, and he deeply experienced his mother's hardships and fatigue. So he decided to help his mother support the family, everything was done smoothly and steadily at a young age, but now he is in trouble, how does he face his mother's hard work?!

How he wanted to use his young shoulders to share some of the heavy yoke of life for his mother! Although he was exhausted by the daily labor, he was secretly proud of himself when he saw that his mother could suffer a little less and be a little tired.

After grazing the night cattle every night, they began to plough the land in the early morning, set the yaks, and followed the iron plough step by step to measure the land that belonged to their own family and provided food for a family of five, and their hearts were full of pious support and attachment.

The moist scent of the upturned earth was so refreshing! It made the eyelids that kept fighting a little lighter, and the brain slowly cleared up.

Tie Dan'er asked her mother one day: "Mom, do you know how the sky is bright?" The mother was surprised to see her son being beaten by the wind and frost in Saibei, and his little face was dyed with plateau red, and asked lovingly: "How do you say it is bright?" "It's 'Ulu' that lit up all of a sudden, 'Ulu' lit up again, and then it lit up alternately, one after another." ”

Tie Dan'er's mother was confused by her son's words, the sky was bright on the third watch, and then it darkened, the so-called darkness before dawn, and then it was bright again, but how could it be so "Ulu all at once" lit up?

Tie Dan'er's mother has been thinking about her son's words for a few days, and when she understands it, she can't help but feel sad. It turned out that the sky lit up in the middle of the son's dazed napping and plowing, no wonder "Ulu" lit up and "Ulu" darkened!

Early in the morning, Zhang San from the village came to ask for an explanation - the cow ate his family's wheat seedlings. Tie Dan'er ploughed the field and didn't go home yet, Tie Dan'er's mother hurried to the field, asked what happened, and knew that it was five cows that caused the trouble, so she found her husband's cousin Erzhu and his family to take responsibility together. After the discussion of the three families, the compensation will be made according to the average yield per mu of wheat after autumn minus the amount that can be received, and Tie Dan'er's family will pay one-fifth.

The two families are full of compensation, they have said a lot of good things, and they have promised to compensate others, and the disaster caused by Tie Dan'er is finally solved, and the guilt of Tie Dan'er's small heart can't be calmed for a long time - I wanted to reduce the burden on my mother, but I didn't want to cause trouble to the family. This accident strengthened his determination to help his mother without going to school.

Therefore, not a single hardship could make Tie Dan'er retreat and return to school. Tie Dan'er's mother no longer insists on it, but her heart is full of guilt for the child.